Sufjan Stevens says about his John Wayne Gacy song, "I'm less interested in cause and effect, in terms of human iniquity. I believe we all have the capacity for murder. We are ruthless creatures. I felt insurmountable empathy not with his behavior, but with his nature, and there was nothing I could do to get around confessing that, however horrifying it sounds."
This relates to this Coelho novel I'm reading to understand a woman. I agree with Sufjan and maybe a little with Coelho too.